


The Other Memory Box

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 10 OT+ Fics [5]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Multi, Nostalgia, OT5, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22888954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Inspired by a prompt on the previous page (http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/1511.html?thread=835559#cmt835559), I’d like a little something.Pitch and any guardian (preferably Jack, but I’m a-okay with anyone else too) used to be in a relationship, but they had a bad breakup. Like, a reallyreally bad one. It doesn’t matter how long ago it was, they’re both still pretty angry about it, and make no secret of it.Humorous banter and reactions, or full-blown angst and tears - your choice, dear anons."Tooth and Sandy share a quiet moment over a memory box that doesn’t hold teeth, but something else. In the OT6 timeline, this happens after Pitch has left and as the rest of them are drifting apart.
Relationships: Nicholas St. North/Toothiana/E. Aster Bunnymund/Sanderson Mansnoozie/Pitch Black
Series: My Top 10 OT+ Fics [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1644124
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: RotG Polyamory Fics





	The Other Memory Box

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 6/13/2014.

_You kept them,_ Sandy signs to Tooth, looking into the small, pentagonal box. No question mark follows, but she didn’t really expect it to.  
  
She sighs softly. Sandy had come to the Tooth Palace so she could show him where her newer fairies would be collecting and thus where she would need the children to sleep especially soundly. It was supposed to be simply a business meeting. She hadn’t meant to have him linger for conversation, welcome as it was, in her, and his, and all their, growing isolation. Because conversation could lead to moments like this.  
  
“It would have gone against my nature to get rid of them,” Tooth says, though she knows that’s not an explanation. The contents of that box have less to do with her center and more to do with who she, and four others, are and were, apart from their centers and in themselves.  
  
Sandy’s mouth curves in a smile so small it might not be there at all. He runs his thumbs against the polished rosewood. Tooth alights near him, wanting to place her hand on his shoulder as she looks into the box with him, worrying that it’s been too long since she’s done so for her to do it now.  
  
She’d like to know what he’s thinking as he looks at the rings in the five silk-lined recesses of the box, but no more signs appear above his head. It doesn’t surprise her. They all speak less freely these days. It’s why she doesn’t ask Sandy what he means when he touches each of the rings in turn: The wide gold band inlaid with rubies, the narrower silver band crowned with an egg-shaped emerald, the ring of intricately woven golden wire holding dozens of tiny amethysts, sapphires, and clear rock crystal, the ring of shimmering golden glass, and finally, the ring of obsidian.  
  
His touch lingers on that one a moment longer than the others, before he looks up at Tooth. He doesn’t sign a question, but she knows he wants an answer. She doesn’t know if she has one. All of them wanted answers, but if they hadn’t gotten them then, how could they manage to find them later, as the silences only grew?  
  
“I know that Bunny broke his,” she says.  
  
Sandy nods. _What a thing for the Guardian of Hope to do._  
  
“I don’t know about North,” she admits. “He probably took them all off one day ‘for safety’ and then just never put them back on. And you? I know it must have been worst, for you…”  
  
Sandy shakes his head. _It’s been worse for him. No matter what he did._  
  
“But what did you do with the ring?”  
  
 _I didn’t break it. I didn’t take it off with the rest and tell myself I was being practical. But I didn’t keep it like this, either._ The sand stills above his head, but only for a moment. _I put it in my palace, with the others. It doesn’t always stay in the same place. Like the others._  
  
Tooth does put her hand on his shoulder now. “I would have thought you would have thrown it into the ocean.”  
  
 _I wanted to,_ he signs. _That’s why I knew I had to keep it._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> emeraldembers reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> “I wanted to, he signs. That’s why I knew I had to keep it.” *starts sobbing while thinking about a certain English actor mentioning how the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference*
> 
> *doesn’t stop sobbing*
> 
> Tags: this is so gorgeous though despite being painful


End file.
